Sunday, March 3, 2013

A Siren Call - SOLC #3

After taking care of my youngest daughter this weekend, and also up to my armpits in grading, I decided to go with a poem tonight. It seemed to best fit my needs. This is a first draft poem, so be kind. :)

Nursing Carrie this weekend
was a joy
But the better she felt
The more that stack of papers to be graded
that was sitting on our kitchen table
kept calling my name:

"Karen, Karen!
Do you see us over here waiting patiently
The writings, musings, and thinkings we contain
will give you a better insight into
each and everyone of your students.

Come read us!
Come read us!
Come collect information on Evernote
where you capture what you really know about kids
Take pictures of their final products
then compare those to where they began.
Think about all the information you can share
with your students to help them be
thinkers and learners and readers and writers
for a life-time."

So I finally heeded the siren call of those papers
I just couldn't stay away
Anxious to see the growth students have made
Using a fine-tooth comb to find areas
on which to work with individuals

Some results were surprising
(never a good thing when formative assessments
have happened frequently along the way)
Many results were confirmations
of what I already knew about those children
But all results mattered
and will guide the learning in our classroom
as we begin a new week.

Thanks to Ruth and Stacey
for hosting us again for the Slice of Life Challenge. Head on over
there to find out what other "slicers" have to say each and every day.

8 comments:

So glad your daughter is feeling better. I know that call from piled work - I actually did it earlier thisafternoon so I could relax this evening. I haven't used evernote - sounds like a very useful tool.Hope all gets done.

Wow, this rings true with me. I think that I may have heard my stacks calling out for attention, but my babies are all grown. And you are participating in this challenge. I am impressed and I loved your post too. Good luck juggling it all. ~ Theresa

Glad you got to the papers, love the image of them as sirens. I'm also intrigued by the idea of taking pictures and how you use Evernote. I really wish I had been in Dublin to hear the Evernote presentation. (Yeah, I know it's online, but that's not the same as hearing it in person). In my mind, this is formative assessment at its finest- data gathered in authentic tasks in the classroom, and used the next day!